


parallel to parallel

by ofstormsandwolves



Series: parallel lives [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, Post-Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-03 00:37:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11520849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofstormsandwolves/pseuds/ofstormsandwolves
Summary: Trapped in another universe, Jackie Tyler takes matters into her own hands.





	parallel to parallel

**Author's Note:**

> Companion piece to 'the antithetical problem'

“This isn’t the end. I’m not staying here, I’m not!” 

Mickey Smith watched as Jackie Tyler paced the Lever room of the parallel Torchwood Tower, a determined expression on her face and her hands balled into fists.

“Jackie, the breach is closed,” he explained again, sparing a quick glance at Jake. “You heard the Doctor, once the breach is closed, that’s it.”

But Jackie span round to face him then, eyes hard and tone even harder. “If you think for one minute that I’m giving up, Mickey Smith, you’ve got another thing coming! What was it Rose said to us, eh, when she wanted to get back to the Doctor when he changed his face? She said that you don’t just give up, and you don’t just let things happen, and I’m not going to stand for it, Mickey! I’ve had creatures from the pits of hell in my living room, killer Christmas trees, a man stalking me to get to the Doctor and Rose, and that’s not the half of it! An’ none of that kept me from my daughter, and I won’t let this keep me from her either!”

At Jackie’s words, Mickey and Jake shared a look.

“I can see where Rose gets it,” Jake muttered to Mickey, eyes still on the furious Tyler woman at the opposite end of the room.

Mickey smirked, before turning his attention back to Jackie. “Look, Jackie, if you want to find a way back, I’ll help you. But we can’t stand here all night while you shout at a wall. You need to come with me and Jake, get some food, get some sleep, and we’ll try to figure all this out in the morning.”

At Mickey’s words, it was like a switch had been thrown, and Jackie’s shoulders suddenly slumped. Tears welled in her eyes, and it seemed the events of the day had finally caught up with her.

“I’m all alone, Mickey. They’re gone. Pete. Rose. Even the Doctor. God knows I’ve hated that alien at times, but what I wouldn’t give to have him here now, gob running a mile a minute.” She paused. “What do I do?”

Mickey crossed the room, slinging an arm around Jackie’s shoulders and starting to steer her towards the door. “You’re not alone, you’ve got me. And you’ve got Jake. So we’re gonna go back to the mansion, have some food, an’ try and get our heads around all this, alright?”

Jackie could merely nod in response.

~0~0~

“Blimey, he wasn’t joking about being rich.”

They’d just pulled up outside the Tyler mansion, and Jackie’s eyes were wide as she stared at the house through the car windows.

Mickey and Jake smirked, and once the car was at a stop, they were climbing out.

“Don’t know what will happen with this place once they realise Pete’s not around,” Jake told Jackie, “but we could always spin a story about you escaping the Cybermen. You’d inherit it.”

Jackie’s eyes went even wider at that, and she surveyed the house again.

“Come on,” Mickey said suddenly, a hand on Jackie’s back to steer her towards the front door of the house. “You look like you could use a cuppa. Or something stronger.”

Jackie was still gaping when they passed through the entrance hall of the house, and Mickey gently herded her through to the kitchen.

“Now,” he told her as he flipped the kettle on and leaned against the kitchen counter, arms folded, “I know you want to get back to Rose, but that’s gonna take time. So first things first, we’re gonna need a cover story.”

Clearly that was enough to jerk Jackie from her stupor, as she blinked at him, wide-eyed. “But Rose said this Jackie was dead,” she protested, remembering the talk she and her daughter had had after they’d returned without Mickey. “She said those Cyber-things killed her!”

“Yeah, but no one can prove that,” Jake interrupted calmly. “The only two people who ever came across this world’s Jackie once she’d been converted were Pete and Rose, and neither of them are here now. All we need to do is tell people you escaped, went into hiding somewhere. Maybe you were hurt, which was why you didn’t contact Pete. Memory loss, or something.”

Jackie folded her arms across her chest, fixing the blonde man with a stare. “And how do we explain Pete going missing?” she asked. “Won’t people find that strange? I come back from the dead, and now he’s gone.”

Jake shifted uncomfortably at that. Jackie was right.

“We’ll think of something,” Mickey told her calmly, moving to make tea now that the kettle had finished boiling. “Don’t worry about it, Jaqs. Me and Jake can handle this.”

~0~0~

As Jackie Tyler blinked at all the paperwork in front of her, she couldn’t help but think she’d been conned.

“I thought you said you could help?” she asked Mickey almost accusingly. “I thought you said you’d help me get back to Rose?”

Mickey sighed and dropped into the chair opposite Jackie’s at the table. “I am,” he told her. “But you’ve gotta fill this stuff out first. Like Rose said, this world’s Jackie is dead, so we’re having to do a bit of paperwork to cover that up, make it legal for you to live here. Pete had you listed as dead, and a dead woman can’t inherit a house, can she?”

Jackie sniffed at that. “I suppose not,” she told him after a moment. “I still don’t like it, though.”

Mickey held his hands up. “Never said you had to like it. Just said you had to fill out the forms.”

He watched then as she filled out form after form, a comfortable silence settling over them. Jake was at Torchwood, dealing with the aftermath of the jumps and losing Pete to another world. Really, Mickey was grateful; as useful as Jake was to have around, he was a stranger to Jackie, and things were already tough enough as it was.

“Do you think they’re alright?” Jackie asked suddenly, voice hesitant and a little vulnerable.

Mickey blinked at her.

“Rose and Pete,” she clarified after a moment. “And the Doctor.”

“I’m sure they’re fine,” he responded. “You know the Doctor, he’d walk through fire to keep Rose safe.”

Jackie said nothing.

Mickey sighed. “I’m sure they’re all alright, Jackie. Knowing the Doctor, he’s taken Pete in with them and they’re all together in the TARDIS.”

“Pete said Rose wasn’t his daughter,” she replied quietly. “He said she was my daughter, but not his. What if they don’t get on, Mickey? What if he hurts my Rose?” There was a pause. “What if Rose pushes him away?”

Mickey considered Jackie’s words for a few moments. “When we first came here,” he began slowly, “me and Rose and the Doctor, Rose wanted to meet Pete. She spoke to him, and this universe’s Jackie. She walked into a Cyber factory with him, Jackie, just to see if your parallel self was still alive. In the end, when she tried to explain who she was to Pete, he pushed her away. Think it was all too much too soon, you know? A lot had happened, he’d just lost his wife... But if the circumstances were different, I’m not sure he’d have pushed her away. An’ what he did last week, in the Lever room? He was pushing Rose away again, not because he didn’t think he was her father, but because he was trying to protect himself. You’ve gotta look at it from his perspective, Jackie. What if Pete had walked back into your life with a parallel Rose? A Rose who wasn’t your daughter; she looked different, spoke different, had a different name, the lot. Would you have immediately accepted her?”

Jackie pursed her lips and looked away. With a sigh, Mickey sat back in his chair.

~0~0~

The first time Jackie went out in public, she hadn’t expected such a media frenzy. Alright, so this universe’s Pete had a big house, and a flash car, and a lot of cash. But she hadn’t expected to be swamped by press the moment she left a shop.

She’d only gone to Tesco’s for some milk. She’d come back out and there were press and cameras everywhere. Lights flashing, microphones shoved in her face, and reporters yelling questions over one another.

Jackie just blinked, more than a little terrified at the situation. What should she say? What should she do? Oh, god, could she even remember the cover story Mickey and Jake came up with for her?

But then it didn’t matter, as Mickey showed up in a big black SUV, hopping out and guiding Jackie towards the waiting vehicle, only speaking to tell reporters that “Mrs Tyler will be releasing a statement when she’s ready.”

Then she was in the car, being driven away from the crowds, and it all seemed like too much, and oh my god, would she have to deal with that every day?

“You alright?” Mickey asked once they’d been driving for a few minutes.

She nodded, but was still a little shocked.

“Did you get everything you needed, or should I text Jake? He can pick up whatever you need from the shop.”

“Only needed milk,” Jackie managed softly. She held up the four pints of milk she’d bought, condensation sliding down the plastic bottle.

Mickey nodded, eyes still on the road. “You should’ve told me, I could’ve picked some milk up for you.”

“It’s been nearly two months. I wanted to get out the house,” she responded quietly. “I was going mad in there. Great big house, all to myself. Didn’t know what to do with myself.” She let out a sigh, stared out the window as busy London streets crawled by. “I miss her, Mick. I miss my Rose.”

~0~0~

Another month later, and Jackie Tyler woke with a start. It was still dark outside, her alarm clock telling her that it was just gone two in the morning. She frowned, yawned, stared around the familiar bedroom. Why had she woken?

In the three months since she’d been trapped in a different universe, Jackie Tyler had somewhat settled. She still wasn’t happy, and still was determined that what she’d told Mickey in that Lever room all those weeks ago- that it wasn’t the end, and that she had no intention of staying in this universe- was still true. She’d done the bare minimum, releasing a vague statement to the Police about being traumatised after the Cyber attacks, how she’d fled London and Pete and had sought specialist help at a private clinic in Switzerland. How she had stayed there for three years, recuperating while her husband believed her to be dead. 

There had been questions about where Pete had gone, but Jake and Mickey had answered them vaguely, with a comment about Torchwood work, and a top-secret mission, and the press hadn’t pried any further.

But none of that was the reason Jackie had woken so early in the morning. No, it wasn’t the stress of a new universe, or the hounding from the press, or the constant feeling that she didn’t belong that had woken Jackie. Instead, it was a sound.

Like a whisper on the breeze, somehow familiar, but not quite loud enough. Like someone calling her name. Like...

Jackie’s eyes widened. The Doctor. She could hear the Doctor calling her name. 

She scrabbled out of bed then, rushing to the windows. Maybe he’d found a way through, maybe he and Rose had returned for her, maybe she could go home...

The garden was dark and empty. No TARDIS. But then...

“ _Jackie_...”

There it was again, that familiar voice, soft and gentle, like a breeze ruffling the leaves on the trees. Jackie didn’t understand how she could be hearing the Doctor’s voice, but she knew better than to ignore it. It was a sign, she knew, a sign that the Doctor and her daughter were trying to reach her...

Snagging her dressing gown from the end of the bed, Jackie hurried to go and find Mickey.

~0~0~

“But I heard his voice,” Jackie told Mickey as he sat on the sofa opposite her. The fire was roaring, but she paid it no attention. All that mattered was that he believed her about the Doctor. “He was calling me, Mickey, I know he was!”

“Calling you where?” Mickey asked with a frown.

At that, Jackie looked pained. “Well I don’t know! But we have to find out! What if they’re coming back for me?”

Mickey seemed to consider this for a few moments. “Go pack a bag, and meet me back down here in fifteen minutes.”

And so fifteen minutes later, they were packing their bags into the back of Pete’s old Jeep and setting off through the dark. 

They drove and drove, using only Jackie as a way to know if they were going the right way. And the longer and further they drove, the louder the Doctor’s voice became. But still Mickey couldn’t hear it, and a very small part of Jackie began to wonder if she was, instead, going mad. What if they weren’t coming for her? What if she was losing her mind? How would she cope if it was all some horrible, twisted trick her mind was playing on her?

Hours later they’d left England and were driving through Europe. And still the voice called for Jackie, and still they were just that little bit out of reach.

“How much further?” Mickey asked after several hours as he turned a corner. They’d plugged in a Sat Nav, but it wasn’t doing much use, so they were still relying on Jackie. 

“I don’t know,” Jackie admitted worriedly. “But we’re not there yet, I know we’re not.”

So they kept driving, until finally Jackie told him to stop. They pulled up on a grey, sandy beach, the waves lapping at the shore and the wind whipping at Jackie’s hair once she stepped out the car.

“We’re near Bergen,” Mickey noted, having finally found their exact location on his phone. “Darlig Ulv Stranden, apparently.” Then, he snorted.

“What?” Jackie asked, frowning.

“Nothing,” Mickey said, and he sounded amused. “Just, apparently it’s Norwegian for Bad Wolf Bay.”

Jackie’s eyes widened at that. “This is it, then!” she said, finally allowing herself to get just a little excited. “This is it, Mickey!”

“Looks like it,” he agreed, looking around. “But where are they then?”

Jackie frowned, and looked around. “I don’t know,” she said after a moment. “Maybe we’re a bit early. Maybe we’re not quite in the right place.” She stared up the beach, before looking back to Mickey. “You coming?”

“Nah,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “You go on ahead.” There was something a little odd about his attitude, and Jackie narrowed her eyes at him. “Go on,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

She started to walk then, her shoes leaving wet indents in the sand. She was halfway across the beach when she saw it. It was odd at first, like a shimmer in the wetness of the beach. And then, she realised what it was.

Or, rather, who.

And there, odd and faded and shimmery, were the Doctor, Rose, and Pete.

~0~0~

“You knew,” Jackie accused Mickey half an hour later when they were back in the Jeep. “You knew they weren’t coming for me.”

“The Doctor said it was impossible,” Mickey reminded her gently. “I didn’t think they’d be able to come through, not now the breach is closed.”

There was a long pause. 

“Pete said I could have the mansion.”

Mickey looked over at her briefly before returning his attention to the road. “Yeah? Didn’t come out of it too badly then.”

It was meant to be a joke, they both knew that, but it fell flat.

“What would I want with a big house like that when there’s just me?” Jackie asked him with a frown. Then, she sighed. “No, I don’t want his house, or his money, or his flash cars. I want my flat back, and my daughter. God, I even want the Doctor back.” There was another long pause. “She’s pregnant, Mickey.”

Mickey blinked, seeming to freeze. “What?”

“Rose,” Jackie clarified, voice soft and more than a little wistful. “She’s pregnant. My little girl’s pregnant, and I’m stuck here. I know she’s got the Doctor, and Pete... She even called him Dad!” There was a small smile on Jackie’s face then, but it faded quickly. “I should be there for her, Mickey. I need to be there for her.”

“But if the Doctor couldn’t get through-” Mickey began with a frown.

“Oh, never mind what he says!” Jackie interrupted. “This world’s ahead of our original world, he said that himself. There must be something you can do, Mickey, please? Can’t you even just look into it?”

Mickey pursed his lips, eyes firmly on the road in front of him. Then, finally, he replied. “Let me speak to Jake.”

~0~0~

Jake was waiting for them at the Tyler mansion when they got back.

“Didn’t go well, then?” Jake asked quietly as Jackie got out the Jeep, clearly in a foul mood.

“If you mean that Jackie’s still here, the Doctor said he can’t get her back, and Rose is pregnant, then no it didn’t go well,” Mickey dead-panned.

Jake winced and moved to help Mickey with the bags.

“And I’m guessing Jackie didn’t take it well?” he asked, watching as the woman let herself into the house and left the two men on the drive.

“Pete even told her she could have the house,” Mickey responded, “and she told me she didn’t want it. She wants to go home, Jake, but if the Doctor can’t manage it then how can we?” He sighed. “If she’d had her way we wouldn’t even have stopped at a hotel last night. She wanted to come straight back here, but I wasn’t having her fall asleep at the wheel.”

They made their way inside then, and the sound of a kettle being boiled told Mickey that Jackie had immediately fallen back into old habits and was making tea for them all. They ran the bags upstairs, and when they returned, there was tea and biscuits waiting in the sitting room for them.

“I’m guessing Mickey’s filled you in on what happened?” she asked Jake as he took a seat on the sofa.

“Yeah,” Jake nodded, “and he also told me that you still think you can get back. Look, Jackie, I don’t know what you think Torchwood is capable of, but-”

But Jackie interrupted him. “Do you think you can make a bigger version of one of those hopper things?”

Mickey blinked at Jackie in confusion from the opposite sofa. “Why?”

Jackie rolled her eyes at him and reached for a hob nob. “You said those hoppers only worked because of all the Cybermen breaking down the walls between universes, or something. Well, the Cybermen must have had something to do that. So can’t we build something like that? A bigger version of your dimension hopper, big enough to punch a hole between universes?”

Jake frowned. “But the Doctor said we couldn’t,” he reminded the woman in confusion. “He said that once the breach was closed, that was it.”

But Jackie just snorted. “You think I’m gonna sit here while my daughter’s havin’ my grandbaby a whole other universe away? No chance.” She looked over at Mickey, who was suddenly fascinated with the inside of his mug. “I had time to think about it, on the drive back, an’ while we were at that hotel you insisted on. We just need one of them hopper things, but with more power. Like I said, if those Cybermen could get through the Void, why not us?” 

“Jackie, it’s too-” Mickey began warily.

“Too dangerous?” Jackie interrupted. “Never mind that, I’m gonna do whatever I have to to get back to my daughter and my husband. I’m not asking you about the dangers, Mickey, I’m old enough to decide what I can or can’t do on my own. All I want to know is whether you think it’s possible.”

Mickey shrugged a little uncomfortably. “I don’t know,” he admitted slowly. “I’m not the man to ask, Jackie. I can do the computer side of things, but actually building the thing? Not my department.” Jackie’s eyes remained on him. “But I might know someone at Torchwood who could help.”

Jake stared at his friend in disbelief. “You’re actually gonna try it? Are you mad?”

Mickey shrugged again. “I’m not promising anything, Jackie. I’m only saying we’ll look into it. To build a dimension hopper big enough to punch through universes-”

“Cannon,” Jackie interrupted calmly.

Mickey and Jake blinked at one another, before looking at Jackie.

“What?” they both asked, wide-eyed.

“Cannon,” Jackie repeated, looking at first Jake, and then Mickey. “Well, you said yourself, one of your dimension hopper thingies won’t be strong enough, we need more power. And what has loads of power and can punch through things? A cannon.”

Jake and Mickey shared another look at that, grins slowly beginning to form on their faces as Jackie’s plan began to sink in.

“So we’re gonna build a cannon to punch through universes and send you home?” Mickey clarified.

Jackie just nodded. “Yeah,” she told them, sitting up a little straighter in her seat. “We’re gonna build a dimension cannon.”


End file.
